The city police have taken into custody a 32-year-old man, Mahendran, for allegedly raping his five-year-old stepdaughter many times over the last few months, and finally murdering her at their rented house at Ramnagar here on Monday night.
The case was initially registered as death under suspicious circumstances and was altered to rape and murder on Wednesday based on the post-mortem report.
Police said the victim was the daughter of a 26-year-old woman from Tiruchi.
The girl was born to the woman’s first husband and the couple got separated a few years ago. Mahendran belonged to Gandhipark in Coimbatore. The two developed a relationship while working in Chennai in 2014.
Detained under
Goondas Act
Police said he was arrested by Chennai Police a couple of times for chain-snatching and was also detained under Goondas Act in 2015. On his release, the three moved to Tiruchi last year and then to Coimbatore four months ago.
Inspector T.H. Ganesh said that the couple worked in a courier firm.
“On Sunday night, the woman went to Chennai to get the salary arrears from her previous employer, leaving her daughter with Mahendran,” the inspector said.
Around 12.15 a.m. on Tuesday, Mahendran informed the girl’s mother over phone that the girl suffered breathing difficulty and was rushed to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, but she died.
Complaint lodged
On noticing some injuries on her daughter’s body on Tuesday, the woman grew suspicious and lodged a complaint with Kattoor Police, who registered a case of death under suspicious circumstances.
Post-mortem was done the same day, and the report submitted on Wednesday said the girl was raped many times.
She suffered multiple fractures on the ribs and a broken rib had pierced the liver.
The body bore nail and teeth marks.
Police said Mahendran confessed that he had raped the girl on multiple occasions in the absence of her mother and murdered the girl late on Monday night.
The case was altered to Sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 376 (punishment for rape) of the Indian Penal Code and under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
